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Reviews (1)
Dec 30, 2020
A Brilliant Game - For Geeks and Non Geeks
First impressions:
I bought this game for my boyfriend this Christmas as he loves these sort of strategic boardgames (if you like Catan this is more advanced but an obvious next step). I'm not overly familiar with these games but knew he'd set his heart on this months ago, trying to justify the price - turns out it was worth every penny. There are lots of pieces in the box and it weighs more than expected so, along with the detail that goes in to the game play, you can really see where your money goes. Also, visually, the game is stunning; both in terms of the artwork on the boards and playing cards to the colours of the counters and M€ (Mega credit) tokens used in play.
Set up:
So, knowing that this was going to take some time to set up and understand the game play first time, we both studied the game play manual included. We also looked up some "how to play" videos on YouTube (highly recommended) as this really helped explaining the rules and objectives for each type of card and the parameters of each event and task. The video also really helped explain where all the pieces should go at the start of the game fsr better than we could have guessed from reading the booklet alone.
First play:
Being novices to this particular game, be both opted to play as beginners and took a "Beginners Corporation" card which allows new players to the game an easier start to proceedings but giving them a more generous allotment of resource cards and M€ to begin play with. I won't lie, first play was a little confused and frustrating as we had to reference the game play booklet and the YouTube video many times to understand what we needed to do. The hardest thing about Terraforming Mars is knowing how to play the resource/project/event cards as there are hundreds of them and they are all unique. With practice though this is what makes this game great, and even during the first game we both played some curveball cards, much to the annoyance of the other player! There are awards and milestones which can be achieved (see the bottom edge of the main board) and during the first play these were pretty much forgotten about until the last hours or so of play. I sneakily got enough of the required criteria behind me before buying 2 x milestones which game me an extra 5 VPs (victory points) each to add to my final score. These are worth investing in where possible as I won with those extra 10 points! There are still cards and scenarios that we know we've not played yet and will likely come across in later games, this all adds to the game play experience as opposed to being frustrating. Even knowing that we didn't get to use all the available resources, we both now have a better understanding of how to strategise next time. We have a better idea of which cards are actually worth paying M€ for during the research phase at the start of every new generation, and where to concentrate our efforts.
Scoring:
I thinks its worth noting that although it may seem like you've not got a chance of winning at times; keep going! (my boyfriend played some awesome cards, gained loads of M€ and resources etc. & even stole some of my resources towards the middle/end of our first game. I honestly thought I was done for and had no chance, however when counting up the Victory Points (VPs) at the end, I had a few more than him, and along with the VPs I gained from my earlier mentioned Milestones, I actually won!).
Conclusion:
This truly is a game of serious strategy and working smart is the key. Its visually a very engaging and interesting game, it had colours and shiny things! Yes there are some frustrating elements to begin with but we both truly believe that with more game play we will overcome these frustrations as we learn the best strategies and ways to play to gain most from Terraforming Mars. We've really enjoyed ourselves and are off to play another match later and see what we find! We hope this helps others who are unsure about whether this game is for them... maybe like us, not every potential player is a massive Geek and you're not sure if this is everyone's cup of tea. For us, we've found it to be a fun way of connecting over a medium that doesn't involve screens and and WiFi. We've both annoyed, impressed and surprised each other and that's what makes a game great for us!
Regards
The Zim Geek and The Closet Geek x